Microsoft would provide billions of dollars from its gigantic
cash hoard and get preferred stock, which would reduce its risk
and, possibly, give it some control over the company. Silver Lake
and the Canada Pension Plan, meanwhile, would get common stock.
And banks would provide the rest of the money in the form of
loans.

One goal of these frequent public briefings from Yahoo's suitors,
it seems, is to keep talking down the price the consortium will
have to pay for the company.

Hourigan thinks that Yahoo should go for $25 a share and that
anything under $20 is "theft."

So it seems like the Yahoo bid-ask spread, as it were, is about
$16-$25.

So why don't we just call it $21 and save ourselves a few more
weeks of negotiating?

In any event, we see no reason why Yahoo's private-equity suitors
should have a monopoly on trying to negotiate and price-condition
in the press. So we hereby volunteer to publish frequent updates
on the prices that Yahoo shareholders would like for their stock.

(And I'll start with myself, seeing as how I have been a
miserable and clobbered Yahoo shareholder for more than 13 years.
I would like at least $25 for my shares. And I'm going to scream
bloody murder if the board sells the company for anything below
$20).